Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Nothing I Said Was Enough: Writing As Self-Validation, Michama M. Dorvile

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis explores the process of using writing as a coping mechanism to heal from trauma by portraying how personal narratives confront pain and reclaim agency. This thesis also explores how writing serves as a means of survival and sharing testimony. The thesis starts with a critical analysis essay, drawing on literary criticism and trauma theory. I explore how Roxane Gay, Kathryn Harrison, Bessel Van der Kolk, and Maya Angelou have used writing to challenge societal perceptions of trauma, and how through writing, they have resisted erasure.

The heart of this thesis is an original creative work, which involves an …

From Poetry To Policy: How H-Stem Has Guided My Research Path, Kayla D. Taylor

Student Works

Embry-Riddle PhD student Kayla Taylor was invited to share how Humanistic STEM has shaped her educational journey at the third annual Humanistic STEM symposium.

Words And Stardom: Modernist Poetic Responses To Asta Nielsen, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses how four modernist poets portrayed the Danish movie star Asta Nilesen (1881-1972). German Hans Schiebelhuth (1895-1944) describes the "demonic" power of Nielsen's image to awaken dark aspects of his adolscent personality. For the Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928), Nielsen's cinematic image provokes a radical shattering of language into extravagant "word-images." Danish writer Rudolf Broby-Johansen (1900-1987) linked Nielsen's image to a radical (Marxist) critique of oppressive sexual politics within a capitalist society. German Franz Behrens (1895-1977) composed a lengthy, expressionist ode to Nielsen from the perspective of one who actually worked as a screenwriter in the German …

Girl, You Crazy, Stefani T. Flanagan

Master's Projects

The main premise behind Girl, You Crazy is to inform others of what life is like as someone who experiences psychosis (specifically schizoaffective disorder), as well as show the warning signs that I believe people should be aware of. This text is a nonlinear narrative of my personal experience that explores themes of substance abuse, hallucinations, religion, interpersonal conflict, and family dynamics starting from 2019 through 2025, through the onset of symptoms to diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder. This work also entails some of my experiences as a gay Black woman who was raised in a religious family, bullied throughout my …

Research Reimagined: The Dissertation-To-Book Journey And Building A Scholar-To-Author Presence, Seema Kumar

Master's Projects

This capstone project, completed for a second master's degree after a Ph.D., discusses aspects of transforming the doctoral dissertation on digital versus manual mediums in fashion design into a research monograph book proposal for academic publication. It reflects on a publisher's requirements and the process, including de-thesizing the dissertation, planning the book's structure, rewriting sample chapters to improve flow and readability, and creating a table of contents that demonstrates the work's development into a publishable book rather than a dissertation. Another part of the project includes developing an author platform through blog posts and platforms such as Substack, preparing the …

From The Heart: Writing Love Poetry With Ai, Dan Ryan

Open Educational Resources

The chief reason our writing students turn to AI is not "laziness.” It’s fear. This lesson plan helps college students overcome their fear of a first-time poetry assignment by empowering them to partner with “collaborators”—first AI, then each other—to co-write a love poem before finally writing a poem on their own. This 4-hour lesson plan for a college-level Introductory Creative Writing course includes three low stakes drafting and revision assignments, and culminates in a high stakes poetry assignment.

A Story Of Oppression A Psychological And Creative Approach, Juan R. Morillo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The aim of this project is to survey the manner in which oppression is expressed in selected works of literature. It is a topic that not only am I familiar with through my studies of literature and psychology, but one that I, as well as every Venezuelan expatriate has witnessed and felt for their country. The project focuses on social and political oppression, using the current Venezuelan crisis as a focal point, and selected literary sources as a framework. I will analyze dystopian classics such as George Orwell's 1984 and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, as well as Margaret Atwood’s The …

Alive For The Wake, Anna Kate Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the year 2046, bacteria strain B. bibitor has rendered all petroleum hydrocarbon compounds unrefinable. Paramedic Amanda Bailey finds hope in the resilience of humanity but struggles when she learns the powers that be would rather concentrate their efforts on fighting B. bibitor—restoring infected hydrocarbons to their previously refinable (and profitable) nature—rather than investing in already-developed clean firm energies and renewable material manufacture.

The Filament, Elena Skibicki

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Filament weaves together the results of a neurodivergent person exploring their universe, in all its harrowing beauty and familiar tragedy. The speaker traverses oceans and thunderstorms, wades through the swampy shallows of their high school, participates in a pharmaceutical supply chain and its subsequent ransacking, floats through altered mental states, and retells legends, spanning many styles while still using the lyric “I”. Scrying into a nebulous future, the speaker returns with stories of the planet and its people, and the kind of world they want to build.

The speaker exposes their ghosts throughout the collection, hoping that the adage, …

The Hardheaded Got To Feel It To Believe It, Magdalene Eden Luna-Buckelew

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Memoire short stories about the author’s experiences in Southern California working as an artist, exotic dancer, and going through various 12 step recovery programs and therapies to heal from childhood trauma.

“Broken Things: An Archive”, Kristen Mccallum

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This creative thesis starts from the idea that memory is shaped as much by the present as by the past. It explores the emotional and personal complexities of family estrangement, grief, survival, and love. Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s idea that “every generation confronts the task of choosing its past,” the project moves away from more traditional storytelling and instead is constructed as a collection of archival elements, that includes prose. What originally intended to be a collection of short stories gradually became a fictional family archive—made up of letters, text messages, and other everyday items—that reflects the messy, often conflicting …

Phantasma, Grace Wright

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Ever since the infamous Ides of March, scholars have been debating the true psychology behind Brutus’s betrayal. The purpose of this project is to take a step back from the politicized motivations and explore the emotional, strenuous conditions of Julius Caesar’s assassination. This project will transform William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar into a novella with its central focus on the relationship dynamics between the key figures of Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. The intention of the novella is to not only analyze the play through a critical queer lens, but to interrogate the themes of violence and desire that surround male relationships …

An Unlikely Burden, Kendall J. Aufmuth

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

An Unlikely Burdening follows the story of twins, Madeline and Isaac Blake. The harrowing story explores the adversities faced by these high achieving siblings, uncovering deeper truths and depths of pain far seen from the surface. It takes place in various settings, beginning in a mental health inpatient facility after Madeline’s failed suicide attempt, uprooting the entire family’s world as they knew it. Uniquely written in diary form, it provides prospective to the reader from Madeline, Isaac, and both parent’s viewpoint as well. An Unlikely Burdening addresses real world issues such as mental health, and assault. Can Madeline overcome her …

Nola 2150, Kristopher Ferber

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Abstract

Speculative fiction often takes a dystopic approach where authors envision what will be lost from books being banned in Fahrenheit 451 to us losing our civil liberties in 1984 to most of humanity being wiped out by an engineered virus in Oryx and Crake. This creative thesis takes a more optimistic approach by the act of preservation. In this case the city of New Orleans thriving as an underwater city protected by a glass dome in the year 2150. The city’s vibrant culture remains the same despite being almost too close to comfort to marine life. This work …

The Guests, Jessica Parry

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

The Mercury 2025

The Mercury

No abstract provided.

Litmag 2025, University Of Missouri-St. Louis

Litmag

Litmag’s mission is to nurture the creativity of the students, staff, and alumni of UMSL by providing a space to showcase the diverse literary and artistic talent on our campus. We aim to provide an inclusive, professional and high-quality publication free of charge to UMSL and the local community.

Dear Reader, Welcome! I am so excited to introduce to you the 2025 edition of UMSL’s Litmag. It was a privilege to serve as the Editor-in-Chief for this year’s publication, and I would first like to acknowledge the diligent hard work of the Litmag staff. From the call for submissions to …

History And The Teaching Of Dialect And Slang In Screenwriting, Mitch Olson, Chris C. Palmer

Faculty Articles

This article explores academic and industry perspectives on the use of dialect, slang, and historical language in screenwriting. It offers a chronological overview of major screenwriting manuals’ treatment of dialect and slang (or lack thereof) 1946-2020. It then presents survey data of 53 currently-practicing screenwriters’ views on working with dialect and historical language in scripts, as well as their sense of possible changes in the industry regarding attitudes towards diverse voice representation on the page. It concludes with examples from a teaching sequence that illustrates strategies for writing with dialect, researching it, and ethically considering its usage in scripts. Situating …

Glitching Mayakovsky: Teaching The Accidental Poetry Of Machine Learning, Carlotta Chenoweth

Russian Language Journal

In this article, I seek to build on recent scholarship investigating the aesthetic status of AI-generated objects and the creative potential of machine learning by asking how AI glitches can be productive, both poetically and pedagogically. The report outlines an activity I designed for an undergraduate Soviet literature survey course. For this activity, I ask students to work in small groups and generate their own pseudo-Mayakovsky poem using ChatGPT. After sharing the poems, we discuss questions including the following: in what way can Mayakovsky be considered the “author” of these poems? Does this constitute a new literary genre or form? …

Exploration Of The Environmental Contexts And The Social And Emotional Health And Wellness Of Individuals With Intellectual Developmental Disorders, Melanie Perez, Pamela A. Kasyan-Howe, Sabina Khan

Fall 2024 OTD Capstone Symposium

This research-based capstone project is intended to convey background evidence about the problem of adults with intellectual developmental disorders (IDD) experiencing decreased social participation, physical activity, stress, and environmental factors.

Normal, Perfectly Normal And Monotropic Academic, Jan A. Wozniak

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

A Symphony Of Distractions, Alisha M. White

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

No abstract provided.

Son Of A Preacher Man: There Is Something Beautiful Waiting To Be Born Within You, Georgia Peddie

Masters Theses

In moments where we feel that there is nowhere to go, to turn…in the aftermath of a personal storm, there is One who is always there. Open your heart to discover, dare to surrender…

Are second chances meant for everyone?

A woman who has lost her only son, lost her marriage…

A man who lost a best friend and then his father…

A God of second chances introduces the two

A story of grief and love…

A story of letting God in to move forward…

Son of a Preacher Man is a love story exploring loss, love, and surrender.

Set …

When Books Come Alive: Crafting A Clean Book-To-Screen Adaptation Worth Watching, Larah C. Cox

Masters Theses

The Things We Leave Unfinished is a screenplay adaptation of the novel of the same name by Rebecca Yarros. In this story, audience members will watch as the characters fall in love during both World War II and the present time, and experience how these themes become unbreakable family ties and strong women. This thesis, due to the importance of availability of clean entertainment for Christians to enjoy, explores what is necessary for a filmmaker to provide that kind of film, and seeks to find the answers in what makes a book-to-screen adaptation successful and worthy of an audience (both …

My Beautiful Scars: Writing For Recovery, Amanda Vineyard

Theses and Dissertations

My Beautiful Scars is a memoir written by AL Vineyard. Ms. Vineyard is a recovering methamphetamine and opioid user. She has a painful past and following an injury, fell deep into the world of drugs. Her substance use disorder progressed quickly. After the injury, she was prescribed opioid painkillers. The euphoria provided by the opioids numbed the pain that Vineyard experienced in her life. It became her. Over the years, Vineyard graduated to snorting and then, to shooting up her painkillers. A series of events led Vineyard to quit opioids and start shooting methamphetamine, which took her into a world …

Edge Of The Wagon Wheel, William C. Mcqueen

Online Theses and Dissertations

This is a satirical sci-fi novel set in the near future. Following the inadvertent melting of the ice caps, the United States splits—peacefully, like a mutual breakup—into four new countries. In an attempt to prove that the earth is flat, the Best States of America (BSA) have launched a replica of the Apollo 11 spacecraft with a child prodigy aboard, alone. Meanwhile, a disgruntled low-level government employee from the Left States of America (LSA) detects the launch with the help of his AI computer and makes contact with the BSA astronaut. The story follows everything that transpires to get Buzz …

The Enduring Enigma Of Tom Bombadil: From Riddlic Styling To Metaphorical Encounter, Derek Simon

Journal of Tolkien Research

Conversationalists and critics alike continue to take delight in Tom Bombadil, yet remain perplexed by his enduring enigma. Interpretive positioning appears to be determined by the semantics of the term enigma deployed and how it intersects with any of the several textual standpoints adopted. The primary contention of this article is that the enigma is intentionally both a riddle (noun) and a riddling (verb). Reading the enigma through literary features of the Old English riddle-song can yield an alternate interpretation of Tom Bombadil that has received scant attention in critical commentary. In support of this contention, I propose to read …

Sonnet For Troubled Earth, Elizabeth Davis

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Elizabeth Davis is a first-year student from Indianapolis, Indiana. Elizabeth is undecided on a major but is interested in the ways words and images can communicate complex and personal themes.

Transcend, Anne Gregg

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Anne Gregg is a junior English writing major, Honor Scholar, and Media Fellow at DePauw. She is also the Editor-In-Chief of A Midwestern Review. Recently she’s developed an interest in liminality, Pinterest mood boards, and cryptozoology. Contrary to popular belief, she is not young; she is ancient and rotting.

Gratitude., Beamlak Kebede

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Beamlak Kebede is a student from Ethiopia currently double majoring in global health and political science with a minor in English writing. She is still exploring, but nonfiction has become her favorite genre! She loves reading books and crocheting cute trinkets in her free time.